Colorize the old days ?

[David]

Colorizing sure has come a long way since the early days of bands of blue and green to represent sky and ground. I liked that website. Thanks for the link. It illustrates an important point: two things can have the same value (light or darkness) without having the same hue. So we can’t reliably say what colors would map onto a black and white photo. Take Clara Bow’s hair. Was it really red? In the original of that photo, did her lipstick really match her hair like that? Was her blouse green or maybe blue? Or gray?

Years ago I worked as a graphic designer in the U.S. federal govt. When contracting for printing, we could specify whether the colors had to be accurate or just “pleasing.” “Pleasing” meant that they may not be quite right but they still looked good. That was of course less expensive and in most cases was still pretty close to what was intended.

[Sara Pattern]

This is an intresting subject love the pic of Clara Bow but there are cases where Black and White is better as I own a lot of Laurel & Hardy films which can be seen in either Colour or Black & White and I usually prefer Black & White and the 1933 King Kong film which i remember my kids only watched the colourised version. The thought of the Universal Monster films being colourised fills me with horror in itself as the atmosphere of those films would be lost but maybe the Beatles film A Hard Days night would benefit from colour? . So I suppose its a case of what you would prefer. As a point in case the original make up for Frankinstien’s Monster was used to make the monster looked like something from the grave and it was green make up but that was never the intention of the film maker but now if you see a version of the monster in merchandise he has usually known with a green face. In geeky mode now The First Doctors Tardis Console was origanly coloured green but it looked gleaming white in black and white.

[David Herrick]

I once saw an impressive special effect from a 1930’s movie that would not have been possible if not for the fact that it was filmed in black and white. It involved a man’s face gradually transforming into that of a monster.

What they did was to add red paint to his face for the monster features. The scene was initially lit with red light, so the paint didn’t show. Then the red light was dimmed as a blue light brightened. Since the paint didn’t reflect the blue light, it now showed up clearly on his face as black.

[Leif Mortensen]

Hope you accept that I only talk about b/w photos – and that uses IA as every greytone has a colorvalue. Remember the photo of me – it’s quite precisely as this of Gretha Garbo which to me is far more interesting to talk about than the B/W photo. Young people are pretty bored of b/w but put some colors to the photo the case is diffrent. I don’t say delete the black and white just have the other option when your grandchildren is passing by 😉

[Jacki Hopper]

I’m seeing that being done alot now on YouTube videos of stuff of the past, I’m seeing it done to photos, etc…. it’s a unique concept, one can certainly let their imagination go wild and/or try and actually authenticate of what the true colour of said subjects in photos, etc based on references from family sources, perhaps film footage, etc … it’s quite fascinating , to me …

[Tim Arnold]

Thanks Leif for posting the link to that website. I’ve been colorizing old family photos all evening. Only a few more hundred to go. Lol. I like the technology of colorizing old movies and pictures as long as we don’t destroy the originals.

[Leif Mortensen]

Glad you find it interesting – try and post a before and after picture.

[Tim Arnold]

Picture of my wife when she was very young, around 1962

[Tim Arnold]

Arnold Clan. 7 of my sisters, 5 brothers and 1 niece. 3 boys not yet born, including me.

[Chris Weber]

I’m remembering Nights in White Satin reading this.

Cold hearted orb
That rules the night
Removes the colours
From our sight
Red is gray and
Yellow white
But we decide
Which is right
And
Which is an Illusion

Clara Bow, in person or a colorized photo, could appear in color or bw, depending on ambient light. Teens don’t use their bw vision as often as they did millennia ago, but probably still use it daily.

I think it’s just another tool for the artist. Almost like timbre to a musician.

[Jung Roe]

I sometimes enjoy city street scenes from the early 1900s restored to color. It brings those black and white faded footages to life. It takes you back in time and gives you a glimpse of what it was like in living color.

People seemed more daring walking into the streets mingling with the traffic. I suppose the cars were a lot slower then, so perhaps appeared less dangerous.

https://youtu.be/GUZ0jTU1o5s

[Tim Arnold]

Hi Jung, I like watching these old videos too. Even the black and white ones are interesting. I’m surprised the sound is so good. I think it would be dangerous trying to cross the street on foot. The bicycles looked as fast as the automobiles.

[Chris Weber]

One reason those vids look interesting is that there were 200 different automakers in America in 1920.

As far as safety goes, I did some looking at New York City.

In 2019, there were 121 pedestrian deaths.

In 1920, there were 114 pedestrian deaths.

Not that much difference, but there were more than 3.3 times the number of people living there in 2019 than a century earlier.

You guys are right, Jung and Tim. It was dangerous crossing the street back then.

But on that video, and so many others, you look at it and can tell it’s been colorized. I don’t think that helps.

[Jung Roe]

Hi Chris

Some interesting facts you found. I guess in a per 100,000 people ratio, 114 is much worse than 120 in 10 or 20 million people. There was certainly much more variety in car models back then I suppose. I have a couple of pocket watches from 1905 and 1909 that is still running and keeping time like a time capsule from those times. Seeing the past always fascinates me. Things feel like they were made with more elegance and beauty back then compared to now.

[Jung Roe]

Hi Tim

It’s great technology how they were able to colorize and sharpen the details at 60 FPS. Yeah, I guess in those days the bicycles were almost as fast as the cars. It’s interesting in 100 years, our world today will look and feel like that to someone viewing it in ultra high definition 3d hologram. In the one clip there is this little 2 or 3 year old girl, I’m not sure what exact year that footage was taken, but she would be at least 103 years old today if she were alive.